The present invention relates generally to devices for sharpening knife blades and, more particularly, to electric knife sharpeners which will not only sharpen, but buff such blades in a single pass, and having an additional station for the sharpening of a fish hook or the like.
1. Field of the Invention
While the venerable whetstone remains a staple in the repertoire of the outdoorsman as a means of putting an edge on his or her knife, there is an ever increasing demand for devices which accomplish tasks faster, easier and better. To this end, there have been efforts to mechanize the sharpening process, resulting in an array of mechanical and electrical devices introduced to the marketplace.
2. Overview of the Prior Art
Perhaps the most rudimentary device for sharpening the cutting edge of a blade is the whetstone, and one of the more novel mechanical devices created in aid of the sharpening process is the device disclosed in Pregrove patent number U.S. Pat. No. 6,168,509 B1 for positioning a blade between a pair of angularly disposed stones 30.
Perhaps a more commercially acceptable device may be found in the teachings of Friel U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,431, although the motive power is, once again, human, with the blade being drawn through a slot in a housing and into contact with one or more abrasive surfaces.
More to the point, as relates to the novel sharpener of the present invention, are those sharpeners in which the abrasive surface is circular and driven by an electric motor, whether AC or DC. Exemplary of this class of consumer friendly electric sharpeners are Friel, Sr. et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,012,971 and 6,113,476. In these patents the abrasive surface is aligned with a slot in a housing so that the user may draw the blade through the slot against the rotating wheel to sharpen one side, or the other, or in some cases, both sides of a blade.
The present invention comprises a multi station powered blade sharpener in which a knife blade may be sequentially coarse ground, fine ground, and buffed in a single pass, in a device which is compact, very simply manipulated and easy to handle, and having an additional feature, dear to the heart of any fisherman, of being able to sharpen a fishing hook.
It is, accordingly, a principal objective of the present invention to provide the outdoorsman, and particularly a fisherman, with a compact device which can be carried in a back pack or tackle box and which will coarse grind, fine grind and buff a knife blade in a single pass and, additionally, sharpen a fish hook as needed. It is a corollary to the foregoing to provide such a device which may be powered by a 110V AC, or by a 12V DC motor, as the users"" circumstances dictate and, in either configuration, prevent overheating of the motor.
Yet another objective of the present invention is to provide a sharpener that will dress the back of a hook as well as sharpen the points thereof.